There are lots of projects afoot in the Indiana Dunes this year, from unearthing Mount Baldy from a pile of sand to welcoming former campers to the restored Camp Goodfellow Lodge.
The projects were unveiled Thursday afternoon by leadership of Indiana Dunes Tourism and Indiana Dunes State and National parks at the annual State of the Indiana Dunes event.
“We’re placemaking,” said Christine Livingston, president and CEO of Indiana Dunes Tourism, to the standing-room-only crowd of the efforts to inspire visitors, benefit residents, attract businesses, and protect the area’s natural resources.
And people like what they’re doing. Visitor Center attendance is up 10,000 visitors over last year, with a total of 240,000 people passing through the facility that boasts a bigger, updated gift shop showcasing a different organization each month.
The property’s Indigenous Cultural Trail won the Indiana Tourism Association Award. The Miami and Potawatami Tribes were deeply involved in its planning and implementation, including the creation of a 15,000-pound Indiana limestone turtle. They kept things authentic when someone suggested casting the turtle in fiberglass.
“I remember bringing that to the team and they said, ‘Yeah, we don’t want fiberglass,’” she recalled. There was concern about the durability of limestone. “So we’ve got about 500 years,” she said to laughter.
Livingston said the 4.6 million visitors coming to the state and national parks account for 2,600 jobs and over $140 million in economic development for Porter County.
The Sand & Steel marketing campaign has been a success, building on existing resources including: Marquette Greenway, Calumet Regional Heritage Area, South Shore Recovery Hubs, Ignite the Region, and the Regional Development Authority Strategic Plan.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Livingston said. “We need to build on what’s already going on.”
Doug Lang, property manager for Indiana Dunes State Park, said his park receives about 2 million visitors a year, with 120,000 passing through the Nature Center, which opened a new gift shop last May in celebration of the park’s 100th anniversary.
He showed a picture of the 45 new mobility chairs Indiana is distributing to its state parks, to much applause. Indiana Dunes State Park will receive two.
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There’s also a new birding scope with viewers at standard and accessible heights being installed before the Birding Festival, which takes place May 14-17. While the park is generally moving in the direction of greater accessibility, there is the occasional plan to limit access, such as with new barriers and signs reading “This is not a trail.”
“We intend to close off social trails, or, as I was taught, ‘naughty trails,’” Lang announced to laughter.
There will be three Indiana Department of Transportation projects that will affect the parks this year, including a new bridge over Dunes Creek that is expected to be completed by July 1.
Jason Taylor, superintendent of Indiana Dunes National Park, finished up the presentation with a bevy of projects going on there.
Finishing touches on the $13 million Camp Goodfellow Lodge renovation will be completed sometime in May. “This building has sat quietly for the past 50 years just doing its own thing,” he said. A welcome back party for people who went there as kids will kick off the camp’s next chapter.
Nearby, Bailly Homestead will also be wrapping up a $2 million to $3 million rehab of its superstructure around the same time, as will the House of Tomorrow on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Mount Baldy will be closed for six weeks beginning any day now as erosion is repaired. “That sand continues to march southward and continues to eat things along the way,” Taylor said.
The parking lot of the Comfort Station, which was there seven to nine years ago, will be recovered in the process. All picnic shelters will be renovated and the entire Dunes Succession Trail Boardwalk will be replaced this fall.
Efforts are also underway to create a seasonal housing village for the 30 to 60 seasonal workers the national park employs. There are only 10 beds now.
Taylor said half the signs in the park still read “National Lakeshore” and will be converted. “We are now a national park and we want to look and feel and act that way,” he said.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.